What is a computer mouse? How to use the Mouse?

Today, mouse is an important part of a computer. If the mouse doesn't computer it is very difficult to operate your computer. Before year 1990s mouse was not so popular. In those years, only MS DOS operating system was in use and applications such as Wordstar, Lotus 123 and dbase were widely used. These applications did not need a mouse. Only after the Windows Operating System is widely in use and Windows applications were introduced, then the mouse's importance became more prominent.

Who invented the computer mouse?

Many falsely think that Apple was the company that introduced the computer mouse. Some think that 'Steve Jobs' from Apple saw the the mouse used in a computer named 'Star' in Xerox company and then copied this mouse into the Apple computers.

In truth, neither Apple nor Xerox introduced the computer mouse.

Computer mouse was invented by a Scientist at Standard Research Institute in Menlo Park in California. His name is Doug Engelbart. He invented computer mouse in the year 1960. In his research he invented and tested many devices such as mouse, light pen etc., to see which of these devices made it easier to bring the cursor faster on a specific object in the computer screen. Obviously mouse was the winner.

What are the mouse buttons for?

Generally a mouse has two or three buttons. They are referred as left, right and centre button. For right handers the left button is very important. For left handers the right mouse button is very important.(See tips to configure the mouse for left handers). The following functionality of the buttons is based on right handed users.

To press the left button once is called single click or just a click. Pressing the left button very fast twice is called double click.

You need some practice to get accustomed to mastering double click. If you click twice but not so fast, then the computer will not consider it as double-click, it will take as two single clicks.

To press the right button once is called right-click. Right clicking will show a short cut menu. This menu is called 'Context Sensitive Menu', or 'Shortened Menu'. Once the menu is shown you can do a single click (using left button) to select that option.

If you press the left button once and keep the button pressed and move the curser to a new place and release the button, this this action is called 'drag and drop'. If you do the same thing with the right button, then it is called 'right drag and drop' and you will get an additional menu for this.

What are different types of computer mouse?

The conventional mouse has a ball at the bottom. The mouse is connected to the computer using a serial or USB cable. The mouse is placed on the mouse pad. When the mouse is moved, the X and Y is calculated and accordingly the cursor will move on the screen.

Then the Wireless mouse was introduced since the cable caused many problems But this wireless mouse is not so widely used as it is quite expensive.

Then the Optical mouse was introduced since the ball at the bottom caused many problems when dust and dirt accumulates inside. The optical mouse is quite popular as it is more useful and cheaper than the wireless mouse.

Scroll mouse is a mouse with a scroll button on top of the mouse which makes scrolling easier.